Winter blooms to beat winter blahs

August 31, 2009|By CAROLE McCRAY, Somerset Magazine Correspondent

You can have a flower show through the winter months in your own home. It is easy enough with plants that produce beautiful blooms.

There is the spectacular easy to grow amaryllis with each bulb producing four to six saucer sized blossoms. An amaryllis is a showstopper, best placed where it can be noticed to deserve the attention it merits. So goes the orchid as well whose exotic looking blooms might tempt you to give it a try. Add an elegant cyclamen to your repertoire and finish up with some pretty primroses that generally appear in the markets near Valentine’s Day.

Tips to enjoy your amaryllis:

o To prolong the time to enjoy bloom display, stagger plantings of the bulbs, generally one or two a week over a three-week period. Staggering the planting time will ensure blooms through winter to early spring.

o The amaryllis tends to be top heavy, so plant multiple bulbs in a large pot with a broad base.

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o Water lightly with tepid water and place in indirect sunlight at room temperature. To help your amaryllis pop out of dormancy more quickly, you might try giving the pots a bit of bottom heat (above a radiator or on a heating pad).

o Water sparingly until the stem appears. Most bulbs produce a stem and flower first, followed by sword-like foliage.

o To hold the plants over for another season, “deadhead” the flowers, fertilize with a houseplant fertilizer and water through mid-July. Store indoors in a dark spot with the pot on its side to prevent it from being watered accidentally. In late October, bring the pot out, cut off the dead foliage, refresh the soil and give the plant a drink of water to start its growing cycle again.

When you shop for an orchid, avoid a plant with drooping or weak looking blooms. Know the environment you are providing for your orchid; that is, how much light or shade you can give the plant and ask about watering requirements and feeding. Be sure to have care instructions when you purchase your orchid.

Two popular orchids to begin with are Phalaenopsis or the Moth Orchid. Another for the novice orchid grower is Cattleya, often called the corsage orchid, usually worn on Mother’s Day or as a prom corsage.

The Moth orchid can hold its blooms for up to two months. It is happy in an east or shaded south window, placed out of direct sunlight. Water about every five to seven days. Both Phalaenopsis and Cattleya are known as epiphytes that cling onto bark and branches in their native tropical environments. According to Stephen Male, owner of Fishing Creek Orchids at Harrisburg, their growing habits perform best in a soilless mixture of materials like bark, perlite and charcoal.

The Cattleya requires bright indirect sunlight and avoid placing it in a north-facing window. Let the soil dry out completely between waterings.

Orchids prefer a nighttime temperature about 60 degrees F. and days around 70 degrees F. to 85 degrees F.

Cyclamens are long lasting bloomers with scalloped leaves in a silvery marbled color with blossoms resembling the shapes of delicate butterfly wings. Blooms come in shades of red, white, lavender, deep pink or maroon from December through April. They prefer cool temperatures not exceeding 65 degrees F. during the day and no lower than 50 degrees at night. Keep the soil moist and provide a humid atmosphere.

By April, the corm of the cyclamen will go dormant. Then follow these directions:

o Reduce watering and remove the plant to a cool, dark place.

o Once the corm dries out, place the plant in a shady garden with half of the corm just below the soil surface.

o In mid summer new leaves should appear. Then transplant the cyclamen into a pot with a rich potting soil and keep it outdoors, making sure the pot rests on a moist bed in the garden.

o Move the potted corm indoors in the fall. Place it in direct sunlight a few hours in the morning. Feed your plant monthly with a diluted liquid house fertilizer.

Other grand belles for an indoor flower show are gardenia, jasmine, African violets, hibiscus, kalanchoe and streptocarpus. If you force hyacinth, tulip or crocus bulbs for indoor blooms, lucky you, you will have more flowers in your home. Once these bulbs have bloomed, transfer them to your outdoor garden when the danger of frost has passed. Trim foliage after it has died back. Look for blooms in your garden the following spring.